Tag: voting

Husted Campaign Fires Political Director Over Nazi, Rhodesia Posts

Sen. Jon Husted’s campaign fired its political director Friday after The Washington Post asked about the director’s social media accounts, which included a Facebook profile photo of Nazi SS troops and a Spotify playlist devoted to white-ruled Rhodesia.

Stephen Woytek, 25, had been hired by the Ohio Republican’s campaign in August.

“Steve serves our country honorably as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army and is a proud graduate of The Citadel. He studies military history and routinely reenacts historical battles. While he denies negative intent, his social media activity displays a complete lack of judgement and disregard for its impact on others,” a spokesperson said.

“Sen. Husted demands better of those who represent him.

“Upon learning about the social media posts today, Sen. Husted made the immediate decision to part ways.”

The Post reported that Woytek changed his Facebook profile photo in 2018 to an image of soldiers from the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler division holding captured Soviet banners. The photo was still publicly visible Friday.

His Spotify account included a public playlist titled “Tales From Rhodesia,” described as “homesick for a place that no longer exists,” with tracks including “Rhodesians Never Die.” Songs were added as recently as August. The playlist was made private Friday.

Woytek said his interest in the period was historical.

“I want to be unequivocal: I reject the racist and antisemitic ideology the SS and Nazi Germany represented,” he said in a statement to the newspaper.

Woytek said he takes part in historical reenactments because “I believe it is important to educate our younger generations,” and acknowledged he should have “exercised better judgment when posting about my activities online.”

He did not answer the newspaper’s questions about the Rhodesia playlist. The campaign did not say whether it had reviewed his accounts before hiring him.

Rhodesia, the white-minority government that ruled what is now Zimbabwe until 1980, has become a symbol among white supremacists, according to the Anti-Defamation League, which cautions that its imagery alone is not evidence of extremist beliefs.

The gunman who killed nine Black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015 called himself “the last Rhodesian.”

Woytek graduated from The Citadel in 2024 and serves in the National Guard. He previously worked as a legislative aide to state Rep. Haraz Ghanbari, a Perrysburg Republican.

It was the second departure from the campaign in two months.

Andrew Havas, Husted’s volunteer Franklin County chair, resigned in July after NBC News asked about a 2008 charge of sexual misconduct with a minor that was reduced to misdemeanor assault under a plea deal.

Husted, appointed by Gov. Mike DeWine in January 2025 to the seat Vice President JD Vance gave up, faces former Sen. Sherrod Brown in the Nov. 3 special election. The contest is widely considered a toss-up.

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Supreme Court rules against new Missouri redistricting map again

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Missouri’s new congressional map again after two separate courts gave conflicting rulings.

Republicans had planned to use the new map in November’s elections. It was drawn last year to give Republicans an advantage in Congressional elections in the hopes of keeping a Republican majority in the House of Representatives. Plaintiffs People not Politicians asked the high court Wednesday for an emergency ruling.

The pause in using the map will stay while a legal fight goes through the courts. The Supreme Court justices didn’t offer any reason for blocking the new map.

A snag in the elections, though, is that Missouri already held primaries using the new map.

The Missouri Supreme Court had ruled that the state couldn’t use the map for this fall’s elections. The state appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh rejected the appeal, kicking it back to the state. At the same time, Federal Judge Stephen R. Clark ruled that the state could use the map, which added more chaos to the elections. It was Clark’s ruling that the Supreme Court decided Thursday.

On Tuesday, Secretary of State Denny Hoskins told local elections officials that the federal judge’s ruling should be followed instead of the Missouri Supreme Court. That court has summoned Hoskins to explain why they shouldn’t find him in contempt.

It’s now unclear what next steps the state will take.

Some map opponents have said the state could continue because the districts are still numbered the same.

“The law is the law, the Missouri Constitution is clear as was the Missouri Supreme Court,” Richard von Glahn, executive director of People Not Politicians Missouri, said in a statement.

Those opposed to the new map collected more than 300,000 signatures to push a referendum on the map, but Hoskins said he didn’t believe that redistricting could be decided in a voter referendum. He refused to add it to the ballot, triggering the legal battles.

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Indiana Supreme Court Overturns Trump-Backed Candidate’s 3-Vote Victory, Declares RINO Incumbent Winner of State Senate Primary Race

The Indiana Supreme Court on Thursday overturned a 3-vote victory by Trump-backed candidate Paula Copenhaver and declared RINO incumbent Spencer Deery the winner of the state senate primary race.

Earlier this year, President Trump targeted Spencer Deery as part of his ‘RINO Revenge Tour’ after the Indiana Republican blocked a redraw of the state’s congressional map amid the redistricting wars.

Spencer Deery initially won by three votes; however, Copenhaver challenged several absentee ballots.

Last month, the Indiana Recount Commission tossed out six absentee ballots cast for Deery because they were missing mandatory county clerk initials.

Paula Copenhaver was declared the winner by three votes in Indiana’s 23rd Senate District after the recount commission’s decision.

Deery appealed the recount commission’s decision, and the Indiana Supreme Court ultimately vacated its order.

WFYI reported:

The Indiana Supreme Court has declared incumbent Senator Spencer Deery the winner of his primary race against Trump-backed Paula Copenhaver.

When reached for comment, Deery said the court’s decision made him proud.

“This was a lot bigger than me,” he said. “It says that Indiana is a place where if you do everything right as a voter: you vote, you check all the boxes, you show your ID, you register, your vote should count.”

Paula Copenhaver did not respond to WFYI’s request for comment.

The decision ends a months-long legal battle over who is the rightful winner in Indiana’s 23rd Senate District. The initial count in the close race ended with Deery just three votes ahead of Copenhaver.

Copenhaver quickly called for a recount, challenging ballots and calling for voters to be subpoenaed; she claimed they had crossed over and voted for Deery despite being long-time Democrats.

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Appeals court rules against Trump admin’s push for stricter mail-in ballot requirements

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston has upheld a preliminary injunction blocking the implementation of a United States Postal Service (USPS) rule that requires stricter measures for voting by mail.

The court sided with the lower court’s decision handed down Thursday, enjoining the USPS rule from being implemented prior to the upcoming November 3rd elections.

“Thus, we see no obvious error in the district court’s conclusion that allowing this Final Rule to be effective for the soon-arriving November 3 election will likely result in the disenfranchisement of millions of voters across the country while providing minimal — if any — gains in combating voter fraud,” the appeals court wrote.

In accordance with President Donald Trump’s Executive Order, “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections,” the USPS finalized a rule, effective August 21st, requiring ballot envelopes to carry unique barcodes and states to submit mail-voter information via a federal portal.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani issued the injunction due to the quick timeline of implementation and questions of constitutionality.

All fifty states allow voting by mail, highlighting the significance of any ruling pertaining to mail-in ballots. According to Talwani:

  • 27 states allow mail-in ballots without voters having to provide an “excuse” — Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
  • Two states allow all eligible citizens to vote by mail and permit counties to opt into conducting elections by mail–Nebraska and North Dakota.
  • 13 states allow vote by mail with justifiable “excuses” — Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia.

The Trump administration has already requested that the U.S. Supreme Court issues a ruling in the case.

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USPS Inspector General Confirms It: Postal Facilities Botched Mail Ballots in the 2026 Primaries — Wrong Dates in Pennsylvania, No Training on the Wall, and Delayed Ballots Headed Into a Midterm Fight

A new federal audit has exposed serious failures in the U.S. Postal Service’s handling of election mail during the 2026 primary season, including incorrectly postmarked ballots, missing tracking information, delayed deliveries and ballots shipped hundreds of miles in the wrong direction.

ProPublica first reported the audit on September 9. The watchdog’s report is public: Processing of Election and Political Mail for the 2026 Primary Elections.

The September 4 audit by the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General examined nine mail-processing facilities and 73 delivery units across eight states between March and May.

While auditors found that most facilities generally followed election-mail procedures, and overall processing scores improved from the 2024 primaries, they also uncovered alarming breakdowns that could determine whether a lawful vote is counted.

The report found that management at 10 of the 82 facilities reviewed was unfamiliar with proper ballot-postmarking policies.

At five of nine mail-processing facilities, auditors discovered hand-canceling devices displaying incorrect dates.

At the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, processing center, a hand canceler being used on the May 19 primary election date was still set to March 19.

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Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker Claims Democrats Have Ideas ‘People Really Want to Vote For’

Democrats have ideas “people really want to vote for,” Illinois Democrat Gov. JB Pritzker said during a press conference alongside Texas Democrats on Wednesday.

Speaking about the kickoff of the Republican Party’s midterm convention in Dallas, Texas, Pritzker joined Texas Democrats in their opposition press conference and took a question about the Democrat Party’s messaging, as a questioner noted that Democrats are “still not exactly resonating with voters.”

Pritzker claimed that voters are not “pulling a lever” for a party but for individual candidates.

“Well, when people go to the polling booth, they’re not pulling a lever for the Democratic Party or the Republican Party,” Pritzker replied. “They’re pulling a lever for [Texas state Rep.] Gene Wu. They’re pulling a lever for all the folks who are on the ballot here in Texas and across the country.”

“And it’s Democrats that have the ideas that people really want to vote for,” he claimed. “We’re the ones who fight for affordability. We’re the ones who think the jam will be on the bottom shelf. We’re the ones who believe that everybody ought to have health care in this country. They’re trying to take health care away from people.”

Pritzker also accused Republicans of trying to “take food assistance away from people,” likely referring to efforts to eliminate junk food items as eligible choices for SNAP spending and weed out fraud in SNAP and other government programs. As Breitbart News reported, billions of dollars worth of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payments, for example, were going to people who were not eligible for them.

The Democrat TDS governor continued, “They’re trying to take food assistance away from people. They’re succeeding in a lot of cases.”

“They’re attacking people in our streets, in our American cities,” he said, likely referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) taking criminal illegal aliens off the streets.

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Michigan Man Says Voting Records Show Two Absentee Votes He Never Cast — Mother Turned Away After Poll Workers Said She “Already Voted”

A Flint man says Michigan’s official voter file is showing absentee ballots he never requested and never mailed, and that his mother was refused an in-person ballot after election workers told her she had already voted.

Kevin Tay laid out the claim in an interview with Dave Bondy of Keeping it Real. Bondy published the sit-down on Tuesday.

“It never, it never happened,” Tay told Bondy, according to The Midwesterner. “I actually only voted one time in my life, and I voted at the city of Flint up on the third floor in the council chamber, and that was for (former) Mayor (Karen) Weaver.”

Tay said he has never used an absentee ballot.

“No, I don’t even know what an absentee ballot looked like,” he said.

When he checked his own voter information, the record showed two prior absentee votes. Tay says that is false. He voted once, in person, for Weaver.

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Trump Promises $5,000 Dividend To Every American Adult If Republicans Hold Congress

In Dallas last night, President Trump promised the American people that if the GOP keeps the House and the Senate, every adult citizen will receive $5,000 in a direct dividend from his tariffs.

Speaking at the American Airlines Center in Dallas on Wednesday evening, Trump explained that the $5,000 payment would be issued by the President if Republicans maintain control of the House of Representatives and Senate, thanks to their America First economic strategy that globalists predicted would never work. “Very much like a successful company will do a cash distribution to its shareholders,” he said of the payment.

The reason the profits of tariffs are to be distributed to the adult citizens of the country in the form of dividends is because for decades the politicians in Washington have been running the country into the ground, waging foreign wars, spending trillions of dollars of NATO revenues and other foreign pay to conduct bureaucratic busy work and fail to enhance the prosperity of American working citizens and businesses.

“Very much like a successful company will do a cash distribution to its shareholders,” Trump said.

It has to be spent in the United States, he explained. So, no money can be spent in Canada, or China, or Germany for example. It is a closed economic system that rewards American businesses and American workers for their country’s success.

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